Selected New Books

Ancient Christians invoked sin to account for an astonishing range of things, from the death of God’s son to the politics of the Roman Empire that worshipped him. In this book, award-winning historian of religion Paula Fredriksen tells the surprising story of early Christian concepts of sin, exploring the ways that sin came to shape ideas about God no less than about humanity.

Memorial sites are vernacular spaces that are continuously negotiated, constructed, and reconstructed into meaningful places. Through in-depth interviews, photographs, and graffiti, the author compares the 9/11 memorial with other hurtful sites to show how tourists construct knowledge through performative activities.

This book argues that we are undergoing a transition from industrial capitalism to a new form of capitalism - what the author calls 'cognitive capitalism'. Cognitive capitalism is a form of capitalism based on the accumulation of 'immaterial capital', the dissemination of knowledge and the driving role of the knowledge economy.

The idea that technology will pave the road to prosperity has been promoted through both boom and bust. Today we are told that universal broadband access, high-tech jobs, and cutting-edge science will pull us out of our current economic downturn and move us toward social and economic equality. In Digital Dead End, Virginia Eubanks argues that to believe this is to engage in a kind of magical thinking: a technological utopia will come about simply because we want it to. This vision of the miraculous power of high-tech development is driven by flawed assumptions about race, class, and gender.

In Digital Alchemy, acclaimed printmaker Bonny Pierce Lhotka shows how to turn your standard inkjet printer into a seemingly magical instrument capable of transforming your printed images into true works of art. Using plenty of visuals and straightforward terms, Lhotka walks you step-by-step through over a dozen projects.

At the heart of some of the most beloved children's novels is a passionate discussion about discipline, love, and the changing role of girls in the twentieth century. This book traces the debate as it began in the sentimental tales of the mid-nineteenth century and continued in the classic orphan girl novels of Louisa May Alcott and other writers.